What a shame the NYT lends itself to this charade

Not only does the article fail to mention Ecuador’s constitutional breakdown and crude political persecution, but it omits to say that, in my case, Interpol refused to issue the red notice requested by Ecuadorian “justice” or that Jorge Glas is now in prison in the absence of any proof against him.

Ecuador is immersed in lawfare, a judicialization of politics that seeks to persecute progressive leaders through “processes” that would never prosper under the Rule of Law. In this regard, it resembles the persecution against Lula in Brazil.

As for Coca Codo Sinclair (CCS), the claims made by the NYT are ludicrous. Casey and Krauss’s article is full of inaccuracies and only includes “interviews” with political opponents of my government. CCS was the project that all those involved in the electricity sector had hoped for for years. It represents 25% of Ecuador’s installed electric output. It is clean and renewable. And it is highly profitable with a return on investment in just 5 years.

Before the government had even received the hydroelectric power station, the Moreno administration and its obedient press already started attacking the project. The real reason behind these attacks was the government’s desire to privatise the plant at ridiculously low prices, a plan lead by Santiago Cuesta, Lenin Moreno’s intimate friend and advisor, and Paul Manafort’s contact in Ecuador.

This is just an example of the generalised corruption that thrives today in Ecuador’s “pro-Business Government”, as the new administration now refers to itself, a government in which political power is used for private business dealings.

Finally, on the issue of “debt” with China. At the end of my Government –mid-2017– it had reached USD 8 billion. At that moment, US debt with China was approximately USD 1.15 trillion. Those who have “yielded to China” are perhaps not the Ecuadorians.

In fact, Ecuador is a good Latin American example of how to establish sovereign and mutually beneficiary relations with China. It is a shame that in its global fight against China, the United States should involve developing countries.